


We Shape the Future Ourselves

by comixologist



Category: Runaways (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-22 01:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comixologist/pseuds/comixologist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We have only to <i>decide</i>, to change the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Shape the Future Ourselves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Marks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marks/gifts).



Chase woke in a cold panic, with tears on his face. "Gert," he gasped, still shaking from the nightmare.

She was there. She was there, and warm, and propped up next to Chase in bed. "Hey," she was saying, her voice gentle and low from sleep. "I'm here. You were dreaming, it's okay."

Gert opened her arms to him, and Chase pressed close against her chest. He buried his face in her neck and breathed in deeply. The feel of her - real and solid and very definitely there, alive, in his arms - comforted Chase. The familiar smell of her skin and the steady rhythm of her breathing reassured him. She stroked his hair, idly tucking it behind the shell of his ear and tracing her fingernails lightly along the back of his neck. Chase couldn't help it; he shuddered, and let out a soft, aching moan.

"Was it your dad this time?" Gert breathed the question against his ear.

Chase tightened his embrace, his hands flared wide at the small of her back. At first, he only shook his head. "It's okay," Gert said. "Just breathe, baby."

It had felt so real to him, Chase was sure he'd aged years in the night. When he caught his breath, he pulled back to look at her and meet her eyes. Gert's gaze was slightly unfocused - her vision always a little hazy when she had her glasses off.

"You died in this one," Chase said. "I couldn't, ah --" He swallowed thickly, and trailed off.

"Chase, I'm never gonna be that girl," Gert said, her brow creasing as she frowned.

"No, it was different, I'm telling you," Chase said, his voice tight. He was terrified for her. He knew he couldn't stand it, if she died in his arms again. "It wasn't Victor."

Gert pressed the soft palm of one hand flat against Chase's chest, over his heart. She steadied him. Chase looked down from her face, sliding one broad hand over the swell of her hip and up her side, til his thumb brushed just below her last rib. "It was a knife," he said.

For an instant his glance shot from Gert's uninjured side to the nightstand. He could see his switchblade, closed, on the edge next to Gert's glasses. The metal studs along the wood handle and Gert's lenses reflected dim moonlight. Chase shuddered, and curled even closer into Gert's arms. She sighed, slowly rubbing one hand along the curve of his spine.

"I'm okay," she said. "We're okay."

"I don't want anything to happen to you," Chase said, his breath a hot burst against Gert's collarbone.

"You can't keep me locked up in your lair, cave-man," Gert said, her voice a soothing (if sarcastic) lilt. "Things are going to happen, that's life."

Chase shook his head. "Don't tell me that."

"Look," Gert smiled into Chase's hair, nudging his ear with the tip of her nose. "This universe is a collection of possibilities and outcomes. Which universe we're in depends on us."

Chase didn't answer. Running her fingers through his hair, Gert said, "If it'll make you feel better, I'll lie."  


"Sometimes you have to lie to protect the ones you love," Chase said, his voice dangerously close to breaking into a sob.  


"Sometimes the ones you love are over-thinking things." Gert pressed a soft, warm kiss to the top of Chase's forehead, and humored him. "We'll just make this the universe where nothing bad like that ever happens to us." 

Chase let out a rush of tension in a short, sharp exhalation. "Girl," he said, "You're amazing."  


"I agree," said Gert.  


"But," Chase said, leaning in to kiss her properly, "you're showing me how to drive the time machine, just in case."


End file.
